Saturday, 3 November 2012

Rating Food 7.75/10, Service 7/10Craving their yummy El Salvadorian pupusas, we dropped in for dinner as we were in the area. The decor remains unchanged over the years - rainbow colored tablecloths, sunshine yellow paint and Mexican themed artwork on the walls at this family run restaurant. Service was a bit abrupt and she disappeared for extended periods, but there was only one waitress taking care of the entire restaurant all night.the DRINKSWith a small selection of non-alcoholic drinks and juice available, we went with a Salvadoran orange cream soda

the FOODWe started off with Tostadas, deep fried crisp mini tortillas topped with refried beans, a sprinkle of cheese, lots of shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced hard boiled eggs, and a heap of Parmesan cheese.

A bit bland on its own as the amount of lettuce waters down all the flavors, they were pretty tasty once we loaded them up with pickled cabbage slaw, hot sauce and their avocado sauce.

Okay, the "condiments" include curtido (the pickled and slightly spicy cabbage slaw), a tomato based hot sauce (I used liberally, but keep in mind the heat from it builds and is cumulative!) and a thin avocado based green chili sauce (not shown) - which I also used liberally since I love avocado. Next time I'm going to order some guacamole as the avocado sauce while tasty, didn't satisfy my avocado craving.

Then our fav... Mixed pupusas - grilled to a finger scorching hotness, these made in house fluffy corn tortillas are stuffed full of chicaron (seasoned pork ground into a smooth pâté) and a lot of molten cheese. I prefer El Rancho's pupusa's because Acajutla's pupusa's while having more cheese and a much thinner corn tortilla, they were super greasy - even after blotting them with a napkin. Still, very tasty especially once we piled on the pickled cabbage slaw, and sauces.

the ENTREES

My choice that night was the Chicken mole served with lightly seasoned rice. The two chicken thighs was saturated with a generous portion of mole sauce. The chicken was tender, though a bit dry, though there was so much mole, it made up for it.

The mole had earthy and spicy notes to it, though it was missing depth to its flavors that I'm used to from traditional homemade moles. I was pretty full so packed most of it home, and it was really tasty the next day after some time in my fridge... just like leftover pizza always tastes better than hot!

Mariachi TacosWe couldn't decide if we wanted beef or beef tongue tacos, and went with the beef tongue since its not everyday you get to eat tongue! We were a bit disappointed with the mariachi tacos this time around as the beef tongue instead of being moist and characteristically dense flavorful meat, it was quite bland and dry. We dressed it up with the cabbage slaw and sauces to breathe some flavor into them.

the VERDICTGreat (if greasy) pupusas, and we'll have to return for dinner sometime so we can try their their desserts since we ran out of room (again) to try.